In honor of National Handwriting Week –which commemorates John Hancock’ January 23rd birthday- a New York Times reporter began her column with the following observation: “These days the handwriting on the wall can’t be read.” Increasingly, when the need arises for adults to communicate the old fashioned way, they resort to a strange mix of manuscript and cursive, having apparently never learned to write legibly in either one.

Penmanship among the missing

The time is long since past when penmanship was a staple of classroom instruction and penmanship awards were prized. In today’s world, where turning nouns into verbs is a common grammatical aberration, “keyboarding” creeps ever lower in the grades. Children are expected to absorb handwriting much like whole language reading, by osmosis. Instruction, if any, usually takes the form of tracing letters on worksheets, leaving it to the child to determine where to start and stop. Few teacher education programs include handwriting instruction, Spalding being one exception to the rule. Cursive is still a rite of passage.

And missed

However, there are good pedagogical reasons for teaching handwriting. Mrs. Spalding knew that teaching first manuscript, then cursive, forges a vital link to the world of language. Research has established that the brain breaks the letters of the alphabet down into curves and lines, just as Spalding teaches children to do with clock and line letters. Combining handwriting with phonograms links sounds to letters, the very skills beginning readers need. A growing number of studies also suggest that systematically teaching handwriting and spelling helps students become better writers. Just as beginning readers can’t draw meaning from text they must struggle to decode, developing writers can’t organize their thoughts if they must switch attention to figuring out how to form a letter or spell a word.

A man to remember

Students might also like to know that John Hancock, whose name is synonymous with a signature, was more than a man of exemplary penmanship. In addition to being the first member of the Continental Congress to sign the Declaration of Independence, he commissioned future president George Washington as commander of the Army of the United Colonies, helped create a navy, and was governor of Massachusetts for 9 terms. As students strive to perfect their handwriting, they should know that the gentleman remembered by National Handwriting Week was quite a guy.

The Spalding News

VOLUME 22 • ISSUE 1• 2007

This information appeared in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. For its interest we reproduce it in its entirety.

A US jury has found that a Texas doctor’s poor penmanship was partly to blame for the death of a 42-year-old man. American Medical News (Nov. 22/29, 1999, p. 1) reports that the verdict is probably the first in the US in which a physician was found negligent solely on the basis of poor handwriting.

Cardiologist Ramachandra Kolluru of Odessa, Texas, allegedly wrote a prescription that called for Ramon Vasquez to take 20 mg of Isordil (isosorbide) every 6 hours. However, the illegibility of the prescription caused a pharmacist to dispense the same dosage of Plendil (felodipine), although the maximum daily dose was only 10 mg. (In Canada the maximum recommended daily dose is 20 mg.)

Vasquez had a heart attack a day after taking the Plendil and died several days later. Jurors attributed his death to the drug and found the physician and pharmacy equally liable for the fatal error. Each was ordered to pay $225 000. “This is a wake-up call,” said Max Wright, the attorney for Kolluru. “[It is] another reminder that doctors . . .need to ensure that they have communicated what they meant to communicate to their patients.”

Written by Caryn Hirshhorn

Many students have difficulty with written language, penmanship, for a variety of reasons. Some students have trouble generating ideas or transferring their ideas into written words. Other students do not understand grammar, syntax, or the mechanics of writing. Still others have difficulty processing language. Here are some ideas to promote handwriting/penmanship in the classroom.

Generating Ideas:

• Teach writing each day; don’t just assign it

• Give the student specific instructions-gradually decrease structure as confidence builds

• Use handwriting software to create hundreds of handwriting worksheets

• Allow student to write about segments of the same topic for several days

• After a topic has been chosen, assist the student in developing a visual outline/graphic organizer

• Keep pictures available to help generate ideas

• Require a minimal amount of writing per day-gradually increase the expectations

(Be prepared to start with very little!)

• Allow student to bring a picture from home to write about

• Allow lists and simple sentences-help student to gradually become more complex

• Allow students to dictate ideas to teacher, paraprofessional or volunteer

• Require/encourage student to copy material from the volunteer’s dictation

• Provide a list of words for the student to use

• Provide a clearly written topic sentence and an informal outline to get the student started on a paragraph or essay

Huron Intermediate School District

Kindergarten teachers should teach the formation of the letter “large motor” by having the students close their eyes and draw the letter in the air in the correct sequence, BEFORE doing small motor work on a handwriting worksheet. Take the students who sequence letters incorrectly, and put them in a lab, where they practice sequencing it correct, before giving the child a worksheet. Test and monitor students to make sure they can write the letters in the correct sequence. The older child has another opportunity to learn sequencing when cursive handwriting is introduced.

By doing large motor practice, a teacher sets that student up for optimal learning of the sequence of the letter! The one thing we tell parents of students that struggled with print, is that cursive handwriting is another opportunity. If a child is placed in an appropriate cursive program, they can learn correct sequencing and develop functional cursive. The good news is that a child is often a little older when they learn cursive, and their visual motor and fine motor readiness skills are at a more mature level.

Written by: Jan McCleskey, MA, OTR

The Handwriting Clinic

At Canyon Forest, California, we use the penmanship fonts  in grades K-2 to support penmanship instruction. Our Grade Level Expectations are:

• Kindergarten – Students will learn to properly form all upper and lower case manuscript letters (with an emphasis on writing from top to bottom) , as well as learn to properly form numbers. 
• First Grade – Students will become proficient in manuscript writing.
• Second Grade– Students will transition from handwriting paper to notebook paper in the first nine weeks; learn how to form all upper and lower case letters in cursive; be expected to connect letters in cursive by the end of the year; be able to read cursive from the chalkboard by the end of the year; and be able to write their heading in cursive by the end of the year.
• Third Grade – Students will practice writing in cursive and by the second semester be expected to write in cursive on any assigned task, as well as read various forms of cursive writing.
• Fourth and Fifth Grade – Students will be expected to write assignments in cursive upon teacher request.

Timothy Bartosky

ELA Curriculum Specialist

Handwriting, or penmanship, is an important fine motor skill learned and refined in grades K –3. It is a skill that must be taught. Students must be instructed in how to correctly form the letters of the alphabet and they must be given time to practice the skill of penmanship. 

Penmanship is not a skill that “children no longer need to be taught.” English is a top-to-bottom, left-to-right language. This type of progression is a critical reading skill, but is also critical to penmanship success. Without instruction, children may draw their letters in very inefficient ways. They may start some letters from the bottom, some from the top, some from the left, and some from the right.  

“Children who have to think about how to make each letter typically draw letters inconsistently, switching the way they write the same letter depending on whim or on the previous letter written. Even children who are consistent in their own way sacrifice the speed and neatness that comes with correct and consistent habits. Children put so much effort into the act of penmanship that they have limited energy left to express their thoughts effectively on paper.”

Some programs like fonts 4 teachers can offer a great support to children practicing penmanship, handwriting and spelling.

Ramon Abajo, Handwriting Expert & Teacher of the Year

Downhill Publishing LLC

Kids Penmanship

Tip 1. Remember that the main objective is legible penmanship. Some school fonts may have little curves at the end of the letter (see letter on right below). If your child does not do this little curve, do not bother to try to get him to do it. Likewise, do not be too concerned about slant as long as there are no extremes. If your program has slanted letters but your child makes them straight. It does not matter because the main objective is legibility.

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Tip 2. Give plenty of praise.

Tip 3. Practice penmanship for only about 5 minutes at a sitting. As your child gains confidence and is able to do more writing, increase to no more than 10 minutes of actual writing time.

Tip 4. Teach proper pencil hold and posture from the beginning.

Tip 5. Use regular size pencils unless an occupational therapist says your child needs something else.

Tip 6. Provide large models of a letter your child is learning. You might use sentence strips you can purchase at teacher supply stores to write models to finger-trace. Write the letters with a thick black marker with about two-inches of space between the letters. Use red and blue to show letters with multiple strokes. Place a starting dot in green for each letter. Use a thin black marker to darken the top and bottom penmanship lines if needed. Post these where your child will write.

Tip 7. Always model before your child writes. Talk about what you are doing and say it the same way each time. Your child may need to finger-trace before trying it on his own (copying beside the model).

Tip 8. Use different colors of chalk or markers to show multi-stroke letters.

Tip 9. Write letters with a highlighter marker for him to trace. (If tracing on black he cannot see his line) Allow your child to do lots of tracing with penmanship fonts before directing him to copy letters.

Tip 10. Use hand-over-hand assistance to help your child have success if necessary.

Tip 11. Provide practice tracing the letter without penmanship lines until he seems to know the basic strokes. Then move to penmanship lines to help him work on proportions.

Tip 12. Put a greater focus on the lowercase letters. These are used more often in writing than the uppercase letters.

Tip 13. Teach your child about the penmanship lines. Pat Oelwein’s book gives a good idea that will be fun. The Wilson reading program also has a good idea.

Tip 14. Use a green marker and place beginning dots where your child is to begin the letter.

Tip 15. If your child does not see his mistake, you make a larger letter and exaggerate the mistake. Then make another letter and form it correctly. Tell your child to place a sticker or circle the one that is a “happy” letter because it was formed correctly.

Tip 16. Never just give your child penmanship to practice and walk away. If he makes a whole row of letters incorrectly, he is learning bad habits that once established will be hard to correct.

Tip 17. It is better to make three letters correctly and end with a child that is still smiling than it is to write a whole page of letters and end with a child that hates writing time.

Tip 18. When marking your child’s penmanship, emphasize what is correct. Put a smile or get the very small stickers and place one by every letter that has improved.

Tip 19. Criteria: Do not work on everything at once. In the beginning work on forming the letter correctly, then work on how it is place on the penmanship lines. Point out that most lowercase letters begin on the mid-line (or whatever you choose to call this line). After letter formation is down pat, work on getting your child to “sit” the letters on the bottom line so that they are not floating. This helps tremendously with neatness. Later in life our child will have only one line to write on for forms he may need to fill out for work.

Tip 20. Before writing letters on paper, use different fun ways to give practice of the letter:

• Use gross motor movements and trace the letters on a chalkboard or whiteboard. It may also be helpful to write them with a finger in the air, on the bumpy surface of a rug, or on a table.

• If your child is not tactile defensive, trace with a finger in shaving cream, finger paints, pudding, a box of sand, or corn meal.

• Trace with a blunt pencil in a thin amount of clay spread out on a tray.

• Allow your child to use colored markers, crayons, or colored chalk to write instead of a pencil.

This pamphlet was prepared by Diane Brown.

Improve Penmanship

Penmanship, and handwriting in general, is becoming a lost art at schools.  Many parents and teachers alike are complaining about the devastating effects that this approach can have in future generations.  In the absence of a sound curriculum that embeds penmanship and handwriting into school’s daily instruction, many are wondering, how can I improve my kid penmanship?  One thing is clear: to perform at academic levels, students will need the ability to read and write well.  No matter what the current educational establishment say.

With that goal in mind, Downhill Publishing LLC release years ago an award winning program called Fonts 4 Teachers. This nationally acclaimed software can create hundreds of customized worksheets for students to practice penmanship and handwriting.

Fonts 4 Teachers Software

The philosophy is very simple: tailor instruction to the student’s developmental level practicing with a series of worksheets with dots, lines and arrows, or a combination of all of them.  Images can also be embedded for visual learners.

See for yourself if this is something that might help your kids improve their penmanship and handwriting skills. 

More than 500,000 teachers love it!

Ramon Abajo, Handwriting Expert & Teacher of the Year

Downhill Publishing LLC

Penmanship Worksheets For Kids

“Kids’ Penmanship is becoming a lost art,” say some.  “Kids do not need penmanship anymore,” say others.  But the truth is that in our society today the need to write and read well is imperative.  If kids are to succeed in life, they need to possess the necessary writing and reading abilities to perform at the academic level.  It is true that  nowadays teachers do not have the time to tailor handwriting instruction to each kid.  Especially now when immigrant children are populating the classrooms in large numbers.  If teachers can’t spend the time they should with children, schools and districts have to come up with effective ways to ensure that handwriting practice is embedded in the curriculum.  Programs like Fonts for Teachers are providing a great service to teachers in terms of saving time and providing differentiated handwriting instruction to all the students.

Fonts 4 Teachers is a nationally acclaimed software designed by handwriting and penmanship expert and former teacher of the year, Ramon Abajo.  Ramon Abajo is the owner of Downhill Publishing LLC, an educational software company devoted to help teachers improve their handwriting and penmanship strategies and techniques through technology. 

You can create thousands of penmanship worksheets just in seconds.

See for yourself if Fonts 4 Teachers is the right program for you class to practice penmanship.

Diego Uribe, Ph.D

Downhill Publishing LLC